Neither
a borrower nor a lender be, said William Shakespeare in Hamlet,
but according to researchers from Aberystwyth University in Wales, he
didn't exactly practice what he preached.

Turns out, The Bard was not just a literary genius. He was also a ruthless
businessman:

It has now emerged that as Shakespeare wrote the play at the height
of the 1607 food riots, he was himself hoarding grain. As one of the
biggest landowners in Warwickshire, he was ideally placed to push prices
up and then sell at the top of the market.

“There was another side to Shakespeare besides the brilliant
playwright — as a ruthless businessman who did all he could to
avoid taxes, maximise profits at others’ expense and exploit the
vulnerable — while also writing plays about their plight to entertain
them,” said Jayne Archer, a researcher in Renaissance literature
at Aberystwyth University. [...]

They found documents in the court and tax archives showing he was repeatedly
dragged before the courts and fined for illegally stockpiling food and
was threatened with jail for evading tax payments.